A Sharp Endless Need: A Novel

by Marisa Crane

A propulsive and nostalgic coming-of-age novel about the relationship between two teammates on a rural high school basketball team, from the author of I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself.

Star point guard Mack Morris’s senior year of high school begins with twin the death of her father and the arrival of transfer student Liv Cooper. On the court, Mack and Liv discover an exhilarating, game-winning chemistry; off the court, they fall into an equally intoxicating more-than-friendship that is out of bounds for their small Pennsylvania town in 2004, and especially, for Liv’s conservative mother. As Mack’s desire and grief collide with drugs, sex, and the looming college signing deadline, she is forced to reckon with the disconnects between her past and her future—and fight for the life she wants for herself, whether or not Liv will be on the court beside her.

Written with the lush longing of Andre Aciman’s Call Me By Your Name and the obsessive attention of Jean Kyoung Frazier’s Pizza Girl, and with all the romance and feeling of the beloved 2000 movie Love & Basketball, Crane’s sophomore novel is a voice-driven, literary treatment of the big feelings of first love, intimacy, heartbreak, grief, and of course, sports.

Genres: Romance, Queer, LGBT, Fiction, Lesbian, Coming Of Age, Contemporary

288 pages, Paperback

First published May 13, 2025

About the author

Mac Crane is an American writer. Their debut novel I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself won the Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Speculative Fiction.

Reviews

[Shelley's Book Nook · Rating 4 out of 5]

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This book is very moving and emotional about coming of age, love, and loss. It's about Mack, a superstar basketball player whose life is turned upside down when her father dies. Then, Liv, a new teammate at school, enters the fray. This was such a beautiful story about first love, discovering oneself and then the added pressure of being a star player and all the expectations of that. Mack and Liv's relationship is sweet, raw and real, and the author brilliantly explores all that comes with first love.

The location of small-town Pennsylvania in the early noughts added some nostalgia. Remember mixtapes? Crane writes beautiful prose and characters. I loved how the characters' struggles were portrayed and how Mack was searching for her true identity all the while grieving her father's death. I am not a fan of basketball, but the parts with the games were amazing. I could tell how physical the basketball is and how passionate Mack and Liv are about it.

This is a very moving book with some important issues. It's a testament to love, romantic and otherwise. It is also a reminder that even when there is loss, there is always the promise of tomorrow and healing on the horizon.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

[Sunny Lu · Rating 5 out of 5]

wowwwwww, i literally care zero about sports and know nothing about basketball but i imagine people who do would get even more out of this than i did, and i sure got a lot!!!! queer girlhood intimacy and desire in small town bumfuck nowhere america is my shit ! and this book embodied and respected the heaviness and seriousness of that desire, the constant longing, and the drama of it all. the fuckery of weird parental relationships, grief, and the search for a purpose beyond the tiny little scope of your own world were so deftly described. simultaneously, the physicality of every interpersonal dynamic and interaction defining the dialogue as much as each word that is actually said was soooo amazing. very teen girl angst and the violence and confusion of it all. our main character's struggles with gender and sexuality in such homophobic and repressive/regressive environments were also so touching and compelling. a fantastic novel of lesbian longing on a high school basketball team in 2004!!

[BJ Lillis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Sharp Endless Need is insanely overwritten. Marisa Crane makes their peers—Chloe Michelle Howarth, Julia Armfield, Bronwyn Fischer—look positively restrained (which is saying something!). This is an observation, not a critique. Hot-house-flower prose has flourished in Lesbian literature since forever. See: turn-of-the-century French decadents like Jane de la Vaudère or Renée Vivien, the women’s-fiction-meets-expressionism of Weimar Germany’s Maximiliane Ackers or Anna Elisabet Weirauch, the spiritually inflected self-indulgence of Radclyffe Hall.

Marisa Crane, like their queer forebears, seeks glory in the sparks that fly when love is pushed into the closet and public performance becomes the soul’s only outlet (the closet being, among other things, a veritable vortex of overheated emotion). In other words, this novel brings some seriously camp energy to High School basketball. The intensity of the most violent scenes—and, for that matter, of the most lovely—is almost overwhelming, even as key emotions, key motivations remain below the surface for the entire book, invisible but to the careful reader.

Mack only sees the hurt done to her. She hardly registers the hurt she does.

Reading the first half of A Sharp Endless Need, I couldn’t help thinking that if you gave me a few hours and felt-tip pen, I could make this novel a hell of a lot better just by slicing off a couple metaphors per page. Reading the second half, I mostly changed my mind. It helped, I’m sure, that I know first-hand the intimacy and intensity even pick-up basketball can have—the charged contact between defender and defended, the unmatchable euphoria of a well-executed play.

[Tara — on semi-hiatus for health reasons; will check in when possible. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Sharp Endless Need” by Marisa Crane immerses readers in the early 2000s in a small Pennsylvania conservative town's stifling atmosphere, a backdrop to a compelling story about basketball and self-discovery. Despite my unfamiliarity with the sport, Crane expertly blends sports commentary with vivid imagery, creating scenes that resonate even with those less versed in basketball—a testament to the author’s engaging writing.

At the heart of the story is a complicated exploration of Mack and Liv's passionate yet tragic love. Their relationship is marked by intense longing, depicted through a slow burn that evokes sadness and desire. The suffocating environment they inhabit amplifies their struggle to be together, and the escapist fantasies they share serve as bittersweet reminders of their reality. The build-up of their feelings culminates in an unavoidable climax, capturing the intricacies of young love in a constrained setting.

Mack emerges as a rich, multifaceted character wrestling with significant challenges—grappling with the pressures of adolescence, the loss of her father, and her sexuality. His death serves as a pivotal moment that shapes the narrative. The subtle yet poignant exploration of grief is woven throughout her experiences, particularly in her fraught relationships with her mother and coach. A decisive moment reveals her mother’s indifference to her struggles, further deepening Mack’s emotional turmoil.

The story unfolds from the perspective of a future Mack, who occasionally offers insights that enhance the narrative while intensifying key moments. This choice of narration allows the past to feel immediate and relevant.

Liv is equally compelling, with a home life marred by her father’s departure and her mother’s coldness. The complexity of her feelings for Mack leads to moments of vulnerability, as her fear of being seen becomes a chaotic backdrop to their relationship. While Liv’s actions sometimes elicit frustration—pushing Mack away yet yearning for closeness—they ultimately foster empathy, revealing a young woman struggling for acceptance in an unwelcoming environment. A profound revelation about her family dynamics brings depth to her character, making her journey of self-discovery resonate.

Katrina is a strong side character, initially perceived as unlikeable but evolving through her narrative arc. However, some other secondary characters felt a bit underdeveloped, lacking the influence they could have had on the larger story.

Overall, the book is a powerful examination of love, grief, and the struggle for identity within the confines of societal expectations, making it a profoundly moving read.

Now Available

I want to thank Random House Publishing Group—Random House | The Dial Press for providing an e-arc through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own. I was under no obligation to provide a review.

[Gaby]

challengers but for dykes with gender troubles (this is the highest compliment I can give)

[mina reads™️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whoa

A poignant sharp tongued coming of age novel about a young queer basketball star. It’s sort of like the gapers delay when there’s a wreck on the highway. Slow moving, meandering, ill advised but then there’s that moment when you see with stunning clarity how quickly things can go wrong and you drive just a little more carefully on the way home. A story about the terror of potential, what does it mean? What if you can’t live up to it? What if the heights you’ve imagined are out of reach? Controlled chaos, daily doses of self destruction and a deep hunger characterize our protagonist, Mack. As I close the book I already miss her voice, and I will be thinking of her for quite some time.

[Joce (squibblesreads) · Rating 5 out of 5]

i felt this book embed itself and take root deep in my bones.

[Mira · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story is set in a small town in the early 2000s. Mack is a senior in high school and plays basketball. Her father passes away, and at the funeral, she meets Liv, her future teammate. Mack immediately feels drawn to Liv but keeps it to herself.

The book features a lot of basketball, and Marisa Crane describes it masterfully. It turns out she is a former college basketball player, so that makes sense. I liked that the author touched on many important themes: coming-of-age, self-discovery, dealing with loss, coming to terms with one's sexuality, and parent-child relationships.

But unfortunately, this book wasn’t for me. The characters frequently consume alcohol and various drugs throughout the book. I understand that it’s about teenagers, but for high schoolers aiming to become professional athletes, it felt inappropriate to me. I also didn’t particularly like any of the characters, and the ending felt rushed, leaving me with so many unanswered questions. After finishing the book, I can't even say for sure—does it have a happy ending?

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House (The Dial Press) for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

 

[JulesGP · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recognized the author’s name from their debut so I requested this book without reading the blurb which sometimes works out well. Mack Morris is a star basketball player for the Hornets, a HS team in a small town in Pennsylvania around 2004. It’s pretty obvious the author was a player and is sure-handed in writing about the mechanics of the game, the running of practices, and the dynamics of a team. This basketball know-how is Mack’s language and how she expresses her thoughts and feelings to the world so it is vital to the story. But no worries to non-sports fans because it’s integrated smoothly.

Mack’s whole life seems disjointed. She drinks and gets high as much as she plays ball. Her late father had a gambling addiction but also was the person who helped her fall under the spell of her sport. Her mother is emotionally distant and seems more worried about how Mack’s decisions might affect her than caring about her daughter. Only Coach Puck and Grayson, Mack’s buddy/drug dealer, seem to be the semi-steadying forces in her life. The town itself is another strong character. Instead of it having a storybook quaintness, the author paints a picture of Mack slowly suffocating in a dead end place, knowing that her talent is her only pathway out, but also terrified of making the wrong decision and being trapped in a small, disappointing life. To discover what makes a life meaningful is a whole journey but when you’re 18, it often feels like you need to know everything right then.

Throughout the book, Mack explores her Queer identity and her attraction to girls. When the new hot shot ball player, Liv Cooper, joins the team, the pains of first love hit Mack hard, a turbulent tug of war between longing and connection.

Mack is a character I will be thinking about for a while. It’s all or nothing for her just like for a lot of young people and the author grasps those emotions and moments in a way that feels truthful and immediate, with no apologies, and for me, their lyrical telling hits home.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an arc. I am leaving a review voluntarily.

[andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

i'm going to try to write a review about this one without screaming at the top of my lungs. thank you to Random House, The Dial Press, and NetGalley for making an advanced digital copy happen for me.

this book is out May 13 2025. preorder it now. i have read it and i have it preordered in three different formats. i'm not kidding, i'm about to get really annoying about this book.

--

i never know how to talk about books that i so deeply love.

this is a book with some of the most beautifully written prose and some of the most accurate depictions of lesbian longing that i've ever read. i think about this book and i feel it physically in my body. just the memory of reading it inspires a specific longing in me, as though i'm being pulled to something like a magnet. it's that good - it's given me a visceral reaction.

first off - if you're scared of sports, don't be. yes, this is a queer basketball romance. yes, there's basketball, but it's written in a way that doesn't make it too difficult to grasp what's going on, but the basketball scenes really aren't about basketball, anyway. this book is a wild testament to the love between teammates, the difficulties of unraveling your own identity in the moments you're trying to decide who you want to be. this book is about grief as much as it is about the grief of losing your youth, the grief of decision, and the perils of indecision. this book is about wild love.

we have mack, sports star. her dad dies. left with a ton of debt from credit cards he'd taken out in their names, her mom can't really be a mom. and even in this, you realize that the people we regard as the ones that are meant to protect us and take care of us are just people, too. there's this word - "sonder" - and it's a feeling of realizing that everyone has a life as complex and full as your own. that was what this book felt like.

liv transfers in. mack and liv connect on the court in that once-in-a-lifetime way that makes you desperately want to latch on to it, because you understand you may never have that feeling again. mack pines, even as we're introduced to liv's utterly disgusting boyfriend.

they both turn over stones, looking for the answers to their future. both courted by college scouts, both pushing their bodies to the limit at the expense of their futures, you realize what a specific snowglobe of a moment youth can feel like when you're in it. how much you don't want to leave that feeling of not being sure, because decision means mapping out who you want to be. it means your eventual death, too. this book made me feel immortal in that feeling.

this feels like a poet's novel, the prose is that gorgeous and lyrical. it unravels lust and love, but also sexuality, homophobia - both internalized and not, and gender. the feeling of being you, but not being able to communicate that to the world.

there are very few books that i feel like have fundamentally changed me, but this is one. thank you to mac crane for delivering to me the novel of my heart.

i can say with certainty this is my favorite book of all time.

[Thanh · Rating 5 out of 5]

i have been BEGGING for a queer basketball romance and i got it! i wish i had this book when i was younger. although it focuses mostly on mack and liv's relationship, it's a coming-of-age novel at its core and delves into many deeper topics beyond that. a sharp endless need follows the main character, mack, as she navigates her relationship with basketball, her family, her teammates, and her sexuality and gender with 2004 u.s. politics as the backdrop.

i was most impressed by the crane's writing style. she describes basketball and sports in such a poetic way. there is truly something beautiful about knowing precise movements of people you love in a way that transcends language. i think if you grow up playing sports, you'd resonate a lot with the chase of perfectionism and the obsession with sports portrayed throughout. crane also normalises "taboo" subjects by writing in a matter of fact manner as if we're inside of mack's brain and experiencing the day-to-day thoughts that she'd have. i was very pleasantly surprised by how crane explored mack's gender expression. it's rare to find queer literary fiction with masculine representation where the character isn't trans-masc.

admittedly, this was originally a 4.5-star read, leaning more towards 4 stars, but after revisiting highlights that stood out, i think this is a 5-star novel that i will be thinking about and recommending to friends. i feel like i know and understand mack very intimately and everything ties together well to make a very impactful coming-of-age story. thank you marisa crane, random house publishing, and netgalley for this wonderful novel!

[lexluvsb00ks · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow this was spectacular - i had CHILLS reading the last few pages. this is one of those books you think about for years after. so lucky to have randomly picked up a signed copy of this at my local bookstore. we need an adaptation of this asap

[Liralen · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was as if we'd been playing together our entire lives. We didn't even have to say anything; we knew when the other's blood was hot with fury. We were alone together; we were a crowd all our own. We were ethereal; we were of the world. We were untouchable; we were touching each other all the time, with every pass, every play, every time-out, every steal. (loc. 1339*)

Another time and another place: When Mack and Liv meet, it's an instant connection. They're both basketball players with Division I dreams and the skills to back it up. The air sizzles between them, on and off the court. But: It's a different time. Liv has a boyfriend; heterosexuality is the only option that has ever been modelled for them; Mack, too, is unwilling to take that first step out of bounds.

This is set in 2004, putting Mack in her last year of high school around the same time I was in mine (though I was a sports-averse nerd, and Mack sees college primarily as a vehicle to play basketball at a higher level). The year is there in the details: Mack and her mother share a flip phone; communication via AIM (or AIM away status) is the norm; social media isn't yet a thing, but word gets around anyway. Word always gets around.

For whatever reason, most of the basketball books I've read have been about queer girls figuring it out. This reminds me strongly of Nina Revoyr's The Necessary Hunger, which remains one of the best queer-girls-figuring-it-out books I know and also features characters whose lives revolve around the next basket. Different settings, different time periods, different plots, of course. But both of them with this push-pull of will they and won't they and how much does it cost to put yourself forward, to be open about want.

There are a few things here that I'm still puzzling over after finishing the book (what was up with Liv's father? And the end—where does that leave them, both individually and together?), and I think I might have liked a slower timeline—Mack and Liv have one of those teenage relationships (platonic/romantic/sexual, doesn't matter) that burns so bright and so fast that it's clear that something will have to give—but this makes for a dynamic coming-of-age story.

Thanks to the author and publisher for inviting me to read a review copy through NetGalley.

[DianaRose · Rating 5 out of 5]

a favorite read of 2025🩵

firstly, thank you to the publisher for an arc!

wow, never would i have ever thought i would read and enjoy a book about women’s basketball, EVER! especially considering i care very little for sports.

but a sharp endless need is not just about high school basketball, it’s so much more: losing a parent suddenly and unraveling secrets from their past, the toxic yet functional bond between teammates, being queer in a small, suffocating town, abusing drugs and alcohol as a young person, as well as the uncertainty of the future in many capacities (deciding what team to play college sports for, what it means to be queer in the early 2000s, and how injuries disrupt the plans for the future).

overall, i’m blown away at how a sharp endless need not only grabbed my attention, but had me root for our cast characters.

[Susannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

The yearning gay sports novel of my dreams. 😭

[Kelly McElroy · Rating 3 out of 5]

wanted to give this four stars so badly but had to dock one because the ending was rushed and deeply unsatisfying. hate when that happens

[Mallory Pearson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gorgeous, gripping, wrenching story of first loves - whether it be burgeoning queerness, an obsession with the sport that defines you, or the intersection of the two.

I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself is an all-time favorite novel, so I couldn't wait to pick up Crane's next work. Of course, it didn't disappoint. I devoured this book in a single sitting, unable to put it down. Crane's voice is poetic, sharp, and rich, and anyone will be able to find themselves reflected in a story about the pushing your body to the limits of your ambition. As a WNBA fan, I was enthralled by the depiction of queer young adults seeking validation in their adoration for basketball. The sport comes alive through Crane's prose. Games are frantic, intimate, passionate. The characters are vibrant and so relatable that I felt myself overcome with nostalgic sadness for them and their exploration of gender and sexuality.

I truly can't sing A Sharp Endless Need's praises enough - it's a book that I'd recommend to any queer person seeking purpose in their life, afraid to learn what might live beneath the driving force of their desires.

[Celine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marisa Crane's debut novel is one of my all-time favorites. They have this brutal, lyrical way of writing stories, which feel yanked up from the quietest parts of myself. And so I was looking forward to reading a new novel from them, sure I would love it just as much. Spoiler: I did.

A Sharp Endless Need is about being young, defining the soft edges of yourself, being sure of nothing aside from what you want in the moment. It's also about basketball, and it's set in (I believe?) the aughts.

Despite not being a big fan of basketball, or sports in general, this was written so exquisitely that I couldn't look away. Reading ASEN was the closest I've gotten to feeling that specific, vibrant shade of young since living through it.

[bweadbun · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Sharp Endless Need opens with the dance of basketball. The prose has a cadence that gives it an almost musical quality and the story that follows - the give and take between two young athletes - perfectly choreographs the dance within it.

Mack’s senior year is approaching and her dreams of DI athlete “stardom” quickly turn from passion to necessity after a family secret comes to light and she looks for an out to her small town life. Pressure is rising and the introduction of a new face on the team, Liv, brings about an undeniably fierce chemistry between the two girls both on and off the court.

Idling in parking lots indulging on whatever delicacies your pocket change affords you, how the sticky heat of a summer night can peel open your vulnerability like a fruit, AIM!!! — Crane captures the teen years with all of its bitter nostalgia and dramatics, made all the more intense by the grittiness of queer coming-of-age and the uniquely American fanaticism of high school athletics.

Thank you to Netgalley and The Dial Press for an eARC of this title!

[thebookybird · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing was excellent but there were some pacing issues and the ending bugged me.

[casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

feels excessive to describe the writing as too flowery for me but im struggling to think of another way to describe it lol. moreso was simile central and im just nottt a fan of that style remotely 😭 very bittersweet story that im glad i ended up finishing tho!

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I’ve read all year. Lesbian coming of age sports novel that hits like a punch to the gut. I requested this as soon as I saw it because I loved Exoskeletons and I still can’t believe how good it is. Read if you’re interested in lesbianism, gender, yearning, self-destruction, daddy issues, women’s sports, or the song $20 by Boygenius.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC!

[fulcrum · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 ⭐️
sapphic yearning, basketball, coming of age and all the messy, painful, sometimes tender things that come with it. i liked this one.

[melody · Rating 4 out of 5]

yeah i read a book about basketball!! and yeah i understood none of it :)

thought this was a beautifully written coming of age, the writing was smart and addictive, which is a hard thing to balance. there are so many side characters who only get a few chapters but i am still thinking of where the story leaves them. even if you aren't interested in sports, i still think it's worth trying this book out.

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an ARC!

[emily *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not a fan of sports romance very much but a book about wlw basketball? absolutely 🙌🏼

This book follows Liv and Mack being in high school and dealing with lots of hard life events. They both play basketball together and as the school year goes on they connect very deeply. They both struggle with being queer as it isn't widely accepted in their hometown. As someone who went to high school in a small southern bible belt town I could relate to them so heavily- especially with exploring my sexuality and just dealing with things as a teenager.

thank you to the publishers and netgalley for the ARC!

happy pride month!!!

[Misha · Rating 3 out of 5]

(rounded up from 2.5)

This is a tough one to review. I'll start by saying that I really enjoyed Marisa Crane's debut book because of the engaging characterisation of a parent in a dystopian society dealing with grief after their wife died in childbirth, and also with parenting their child. This book is probably the furthest thing from that debut in most ways, but both have an undertone of dealing with grief while moving on with life, but from a different stage of life (young adults on the verge of college rather than parenthood and widowhood).

Given the above, I'm trying to work out why the first book worked for me and, in fact, was quite enjoyable, while this one was an easy enough read but much less interesting/engaging to me, and this is what I've landed on:

1. The characters are much less focused. Mack is the primary POV character for this novel and she is a star basketball player who feels like she may not be a girl and has a deep attraction to her fellow player, Liv, is grieving the recent loss of her father, and also struggling with balancing her perfectionist nature and the enjoyment of basketball. That sounds like a promising and complex mix of things for our protagonist to struggle with in a young adult book but we skip so much between these without much connective tissue that I genuinely can't get any kind of depth on Mack's emotions on any of them. She is sad about her dad, worried that she's peaked in basketball, concerned that her love for playing basketball WITH Liv eclipses her love for just playing basketball, is deeply closeted, has a terrible relationship with her remaining parent, and just to pile on, is also in deep debt thanks to her late father's gambling issues. Focusing sufficiently on any or all of these would make for an engaging story, I think, but it all feels like skipping pebbles on the water to me: too transient to be able to understand any of these issues or feelings in much depth.

2. The setting is a bit weak. I appreciated that in Crane's debut, they have an interesting soft sci-fi dystopian setting that attaches "shadows" to innocent and very young victims in society based on inherited guilt. We see shades of the same theme here with Mack finding out that she has inherited her father's gambling debts. Still, the latter barely even references this again ever, which makes it a bit of a strange throwaway theme and sadly, the book less interesting as a result. The rest of the setting is just somewhere in America, circa 2004-ish, and aside from naming specific real-world NBA players at the time, there is no further connection to ground me in that time or location being interesting.

3. The basketball. I'm sorry, Americans, the rest of the world knows very little about basketball and cares even less. Crane played basketball themself so it makes sense that the basketball games, moves, plays, technical terminology is heavily features and, I assume, quite accurate, but I skimmed through most of them because it's not the technicalities of basketball I'm reading this book for, it's the emotions the game and competition invokes in Mack and the feeling of symbiosis that she feels when playing with Liv. Too much basketball, in summary.

4. The ending is open-ended and very vague. If you hate that, spare yourself the frustration. I don't normally mind open-ended conclusions to books that can benefit from it, but in this case, I have to admit that after being unsatisfied by the depth of the characterisation and settings and emotional stakes, the ending being so vague was the straw that broke this camel's back.

All that said, this is a very easy-to-read book. There is a fragile but stubborn tone to Mack's chapters that are very much in line with being that age and conflicted about life, family, love, attraction, identity, and sports. Unfortunately, this was not enough to make me enjoy this book.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This. is a great thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat! Mackenzie and Liz both play basketball and coach Puck also pays Mackenzie $20/hr to clean his house. When Mac sees Liv who now goes to her high school, she is instantly attracted and "in love." But of course they must keep it a secret as their parents don't know and they are so young. They attempt to go on dates with boys but their attraction to each other is undeniable. This is such a sweet and realistic look at young love and the lengths young people will go to to try to hide it or change themselves1
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

[Cassie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only act of love I knew how to reliably give: basketball.

A Sharp Endless Need is the kind of coming-of-age literary fiction I love to read: vibrant, bright and brimming with emotion, poignant without feeling overwrought, and featuring characters so real and so sympathetic that the pages practically vibrate with their energy.

Mack is reeling from the loss of her beloved father when she meets Liv, a recent transfer to her school and a new teammate on the varsity girls’ basketball team. Mack is a highly scouted D-1 prospect, and there are few players who can match her skill on the court – but Liv does. And it soon becomes clear that Mack and Liv have just as much chemistry off the court as they do on it.

I happen to love basketball, but that’s not at all a requirement for enjoying A Sharp Endless Need. The way Marisa Crane brings the game to life with their prose is so engaging, conveying the frenetic pace, the passion it inspires in its players, and the strong bonds forged among teammates in such a high pressure environment. But even though basketball is so central to the plot, it’s not really what this book is about. This is the story of a teenager who is struggling: with her grief, with her sexuality and gender identity, with the looming decisions she has to make about her future. She is consumed by sadness, by complex feelings of longing and desire, and by indecision. Mack tells her story from the perspective of an adult looking back on that time in her life, so there’s an element of nostalgia and vulnerability to the telling – an inherent gentleness in the way she treats her younger self and the younger version of Liv. The book is set in the early 2000s, when I was in high school myself, so that just added to the nostalgia for me.

A Sharp Endless Need is very specifically a teen lesbian basketball romance, but its themes are universal: self-discovery, grief and acceptance, first love, complex family dynamics. Crane hits on something incredibly true in this story, and I’ll be thinking about it – especially the bittersweet ending – for a long time. Thank you to The Dial Press for the complimentary reading opportunity.

[Lata · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mack Morris is in her senior year of high school, which begins in tragedy, when her gambler father dies suddenly, and a new fascinating girl and new basketball teammate, Liv, arrives in town.

Mack loves basketball, and is a good player, putting in many hours practicing. On the court, she and Liv achieve a partnership, unconsciously choreaographing their moves in such a way that their team is successful repeatedly.

At the same time, Mack is trying to figure out who she is, what she wants to do about higher education, falling deeply for Liv (who reciprocates) despite the conservatism of their small town, and experimenting with drugs and sex.

I wish I had enjoyed this book. The prose is wonderfully constructed, and Mack's many desires and impulses are very well characterized. The only problem was, I never cared about Mack, and even though I love watching basketball, I found the descriptions of the practices and games tedious. Though a moving story, this novel left me cold.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Random House Publishing Group - Random House for this ARC in exchange for my review.

[Jess ❈Harbinger of Blood-Soaked Rainbows❈ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book wasn't even on my radar until I received an email from the publisher inviting me to read an ARC from Netgalley. It is not really the type of book I read (high school sports romance) but something about it intimated at something darker and so I bit.

And I enjoyed it. It was far less about the romance than it was about the themes of identity and narrow-mindedness, grief and coping, and the pressures and struggles of greatness and prestige. And as it takes place in small-town Pennsylvania circa 2004, it was more than just slightly nostalgic for me (I graduated from a very small town Pennsylvania high school in 2003). Being only a year older than these characters were in this book. I could really relate to the struggles and the identity crises they suffered.

Mac is a local high school basketball star who has her whole world in front of her. She is a star on the court and has her pick of D-1 basketball scholarships from all across the country to choose from. She is used to being a star and used to being the center of attention. She has no aspirations or goals aside from playing basketball in college and then professionally. She is friends with her teammates but still is a bit of a lone wolf and definitely enjoys feeling special, seeing D-1 scouts in the stands every time she plays, fielding phone calls from coaches begging her to join their teams, and getting recognized off the court, especially when she is in Philly watching her beloved Sixers play. When Mac's dad dies from a heart attack, suddenly, she is thrown a little off-kilter. Her dad was always her number one fan and treated her more like the son he never got to have than a daughter. At his celebration of life service, she meets Liv, another stellar basketball star joining her team this year, and this meeting will change the course of Mac's life forever.

Mac and Liv instantly find themselves drawn to each other and their chemistry on and off the court is electrifying and opens up a part of Mac that she has been struggling with setting free in her narrow minded small town. In 2004, coming out was not the kind of thing it is today, and judgments and stereotypes abounded in their small town. Back then there was no Pride Month, no affirmation of being different or true to yourself, no community to help with the transition. Being gay was still seen as a perversion of sorts, and after meeting Liv and finding that missing piece of herself, she struggles with keeping it hidden and the prejudices and condemnation she is sure will follow. She yearns for the acceptance she knows she will find in college, but still struggles with making a decision on which school to attend and play for, so crippled with the idea of making the wrong decision that she becomes widly indecisive about everything.

Liv on the other hand, seems much more sure of herself, and opens Mac up to change, but seems very determined to squash the sexual part of her identity, choosing to stay with an asshole (but very hot) boyfriend all the while leading Mac on, and encouraging Mac to date one of the guys on her boyfriend's team, but then showing immediate and petulant jealousy when Mac sleeps with him in the backseat of her car. Liv was not my favorite character, and although there was some dynamism to her character, I found her behavior in a lot of ways abhorrent.

So what I thought was a basketball romance was more a coming of age novel in a time and setting I could really relate to. Looking back, there were very very few openly gay students that I graduated with (there were those we suspected, that eventually came out later) and reading this book makes me wonder if they were feeling a lot like Mac and Liv were in this novel. And if so it makes me really sad that I grew up in a time when people didn't feel free to be themselves. And in that respect, I really appreciated and enjoyed this book. I also found it bonus points that what I thought was a high school romance ended up being a coming of age novel involving a pretty toxic relationship at its core. Liv's constant flirting and leading Mac on, even getting physical at times, was in direct contrast to her prudish behavior and obvious discomfort when confronted with characters who were openly gay and proud of it when she and Mac do a college visit and stay with one of Liv's old teammates. Conversely, Mac becomes much more open and comfortable when in the same situations, finally feeling that she can be completely herself when surrounded by such openness and lack of judgement. I enjoy the way this author explored this dichotomy between the two lead characters by providing such situations and how each character reacted to those circumstances. It was what I enjoyed most about the book.

What didn't work for me was the ending. I found it rushed and incongruent with the pacing of the rest of the book. It also left so many questions and not enough answers. I also hated the epilogue and found it unnecessary and weirdly ambiguous ( not in a good way, in a WTF way). It took a 4 star book almost down a whole star, but I settled on a 3.5 since I enjoyed the first three quarters so much. I couldn't help but see some of the author's own personal touches as I read that they grew up in a small Pennsylvania town and also was a college basketball star. I always love when I read about an author and find that some of their own history parallels their writing which I think was the case here.

So 3.5 stars for something that I would probably never have picked up if I wasn't invited to so many thanks to Random House and Netgalley for putting this on my radar!

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review